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"The central assumption of this study is that the awareness of a historically\r\nconstructed, culturally sanctioned condition of subalternity is at the heart of the fictional\r\nproduction of Francophone African women writers. Subalternity here is viewed as a\r\nnarrative and spatial continuum inside which African women have to negotiate issues\r\nrelating to subjecthood and identity, both marked by gender and colonialism. Various\r\ndefinitions of 'the subaltern' are relevant, ranging from Antonio Gramsci's to those of the\r\nSouth Asian Subaltern Studies group, and to John Beverley's and Fredric Jameson's\r\ndiscussions. Jameson's emphasis on subalternity as \"the feelings of mental inferiority nad\r\nhabits of subservience and obedience which... develop in situations of domination - most\r\ndramatically in the experience of colonized peoples\" (Jameson, 1981) is crucial, because\r\nit demonstrates the constructedness of that ontological condition.\r\nThe approach adopted here aims to include gender as a category in a discourse\r\nthat often excludes it, and to bring social science-oriented concepts into dialogue with\r\nliterary theory and criticism. Combined with a discussion of Africa-influenced versions\r\nof feminist theory (stiwanism, negofeminism, motherism), Subaltern studies provides a\r\nspace for the emergence of a south-south postcolonial debate that can throw new light on\r\nwriting by African women. Fictional works by Therese Kuoh-Moukoury, Mariama Ba,\r\nAminata Maiga Ka, Angele Rawiri, Philomene Bassek, Evelyne Mpoudi-Ngolle, Regina\r\nYaou, Fatou Keita, and Abibatou Traore are read as conveying the various stages of\r\nconsciousness on the part of the subaltern. Kuoh-Moukoury's Rencontres essentielles\r\n(1969), Maiga Ka's La voie du salut (1985), and Bassek's La tache de sang (1990)\r\nexemplify a first stage of consciousness in which the subaltern woman submits passively\r\n\r\nto oppressive patriarchal, cultural and religious prescriptions. Ba's Une si longue lettre\r\n(1979), Mpoudi Ngolle's Sous La cendre le feu (1990) and Rawiri's Fureurs et cris de\r\nfemmes (1989) present a more assertive, rebellious heroine whose efforts are undermined\r\nby a resilient social context. Finally, Traore's Sidagamie (1998), Kei'ta's Rebelle (1998)\r\nand Yaou's Le prix de la revoke (1997) address the possibility of a sustained African\r\nwomen's struggle resulting not only in transient personal and isolated victories but also in\r\nan enduring social transformation governed by the ethos of gender equality."@en
<https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0058242>